[ARC Review] The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston
So Clementine forms a plan to keep her heart safe: work hard, find someone decent to love, and try to remember to chase the moon. The last one is silly and obviously metaphorical, but her aunt always told her that you needed at least one big dream to keep going. And for the last year, that plan has gone off without a hitch. Mostly. The love part is hard because she doesn’t want to get too close to anyone—she isn’t sure her heart can take it.
And then she finds a strange man standing in the kitchen of her late aunt’s apartment. A man with kind eyes and a Southern drawl and a taste for lemon pies. The kind of man that, before it all, she would’ve fallen head-over-heels for. And she might again.
Except, he exists in the past. Seven years ago, to be exact. And she, quite literally, lives seven years in his future.
Her aunt always said the apartment was a pinch in time, a place where moments blended together like watercolors. And Clementine knows that if she lets her heart fall, she’ll be doomed.
After all, love is never a matter of time—but a matter of timing.
My thoughts: I thought my love for Ashley Poston's imaginative and quirky romances couldn't be topped after The Dead Romantics, but The Seven Year Slip had me clamoring for more, chapter after chapter, and was an easy five-star read for me.
I absolutely loved both Clementine and Iwan. I found them both to be relatable, and also a stark reminder of what we can lose when we put our head before our heart. Poston has officially proven her forte when it comes to abnormal, or even paranormal, romance in very real-world situations. Both main characters paralleled each other so well, whether they were on the same timeline or not. Poston sure gave me plenty of moments where I questioned whether or not this story was going to go the way I imagined it would; there were more than a few things at play that could've changed everything.
Unlike with The Dead Romantics, The Seven Year Slip didn't wait until the end for the big twist, and I really liked that about this book. It seemed pretty obvious from early on who these two characters were to each other, making the story more about the how, and not the when.
I love the paranormal, and Poston does such a wonderful job at incorporating the weird, odd, and quirky into her romances and making them into something I wholeheartedly wish could truly happen. I was simultaneously torn up both for and about Clementine. On one hand, Poston gave us a fully-formed, realistic model of grief - and in more ways than one. This isn't the first time that Poston has so beautifully intertwined grief and love, and I hope she continues with this trend in future novels since she does it so well. On the other hand, though, there were a few times I wished I could reach into the story and talk Clementine into a different path - or at least some different actions.
In the end, The Seven Year Slip combined a lot of great elements, fantastic characters, a lively location, and the ever-looming choices between wants and expectations. I was entranced with the story from the first page to the last, and Ashley Poston has officially made it onto my auto-buy list.
[A huge thank you to Berkley Publishing for providing a review copy of this title! All opinions are my own!]
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Release date: 6/27/23
Format: eARC
eARC provided via: NetGalley
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